web.config and quotes in connectionStrings

Question

I have the following connection string, and you will notice "Provider's.Tests", notice the single quote, how do I enter this in to the web.config to make it valid?

<connectionStrings>
    <clear/>
    <add name="Provider" connectionString="Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;AttachDbFilename="C:\Projects\Provider's.Tests\app_data\db.mdf";Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
</connectionStrings>

Answer 1

I don't think its the Provider's that is the problem, It is the double quotes around the path.
Try to just remove it so it says AttachDbFilename=C:\Projects\Provider's.Tests\app_data\db.mdf;

If it is important in the connection string to have it, try encoding it: AttachDbFilename="C:\Projects\Provider's.Tests\app_data\db.mdf;"

Answer 2

you should use ' for the apostrophe and &quot ; for quotes for using special characters like this in the web.config file.

However, as other's have suggested you just need to remove the quotations as they are not required.

Answer 3

The single quote is not a problem in your case. It's the double quotes you have around the filename. You can escape it like this:

<add 
    name="Provider" 
    connectionString="Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;AttachDbFilename=&quot;C:\Projects\Provider's.Tests\app_data\db.mdf&quot;;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True" 
    providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>

Answer 4

You should encode both the quotation marks and apostropes. Quotation marks (") are encoded using " and apostrophes (') are encoded using '. The main issue here is the quotation marks, it might still work without encoding the apostrophes as you use quotation marks around the values.

<connectionStrings>
    <clear/>
    <add name="Provider" connectionString="Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;AttachDbFilename=&quot;C:\Projects\Provider&apos;s.Tests\app_data\db.mdf&quot;;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
</connectionStrings>